Wire harness assemblies of a variety of configurations are employed in systems for transmitting electric current or electrical signals from one device or location to another device or location. It is known for a wire harness assembly to include a housing into which one or more wires extends such that the one or more wires may terminate within the housing in order to facilitate connection with a complementary portion of the wire harness, i.e. a mating connector, or the one or more wires may be spliced together within the housing such that the housing provides protection to the termination or splice. It is also known to provide a seal at an interface where the one or more wires enter the housing in order to prevent contaminants such as water, dust, and dirt that are present outside of the housing from entering the housing at the interface. The seal is typically received within a recess of the housing and one or more apertures are provided through the seal in order to allow the one or more wires to pass therethrough to enter the housing. Consequently, inner peripheries of the one or more apertures are sealed to the one or more wires and an outer periphery of the seal is sealed to the housing. A seal retainer is provided in order to ensure that the seal remains properly positioned within the housing, thereby ensuring that the seal is able to carry out its intended function. One such seal retainer is illustrated U.S. Pat. No. 9,543,747 to Dew et al. where the seal retainer includes a pair of lock arms with apertures therethrough which engage complementary lock protuberances that extend outward from the housing. The lock arms are flexible and resilient in order to allow the lock arms to lift over the lock protuberances during installation of the seal retainer to the housing and also during disassembly of the seal retainer from the housing. The lock protuberances typically include ramp surfaces, as illustrated by Dew et al., which automatically flex the lock arms only by the required amount during assembly of the seal retainer to the housing. However, disassembly of the seal retainer from the housing requires that outward forces be applied to the lock arms in order to displace the lock arms sufficiently far to clear the lock protuberances, thereby allowing the seal retainer to be slid free from of the housing. The forces applied to the lock arms may be provided by a human finger or a screwdriver or similar tool to pry the lock arms free of the lock protuberances. However, if care is not taken, the lock arms may be displaced sufficiently far so as to exceed the elastic limit of the lock arms, thereby preventing the lock arms from returning to their original position after the forces have been released from the lock arms. If the elastic limit of the lock arms has been exceeded, the lock arms may no longer properly engage the lock protuberances upon assembly of the seal retainer to the housing, thereby rendering the seal retainer ineffective for retaining the seal within the housings. Furthermore, if the elastic limit of the lock arms has been exceeded, significant rework of the wire harness assembly may be necessary in order to replace the damaged seal retainer.
What is needed is a wire harness assembly which minimizes or eliminates one or more of the shortcomings as set forth above.